


Your Bright Mirror Hangs High | 明镜高悬

by lalunaticscribe



Series: Plum Forest [2]
Category: Chinese Mythology, 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Celestial Bureaucracy, Chinese Hell Bureaucracy, Diyu, Gen, Halloween, Nirvana in Fire Drabble Challenge Week 10, Ten Courts of Hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 23:44:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12493568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalunaticscribe/pseuds/lalunaticscribe
Summary: “Your Bureau was always meant to reflect the good and evil of the world to the Emperor, like the legendary mirror of the First Emperor of Qin....The bright mirror now hangs low because of you. Whatever you get today is your karma. Good day, Director Xia... for the rest of your afterlife.”In the afterlife, Xiao Jingyu confronts Xia Jiang with the result of karma.





	Your Bright Mirror Hangs High | 明镜高悬

“Official Xiao, the records for the Southern Continent?”

“It is here.” Xiao Jingyu was very glad that he was not the one carrying the paperwork for the Qinguang Palace.

“Thank you.” The records trolley began to float away with the other ghost official’s touch, leaving Xiao Jingyu to think about his comparatively smaller house in Youdu with his deceased wife, and his son in the human world with his deceased mother’s ghost. Yes, even the world of the strange seemed very normal for Xiao Jingyu – once the prince of a country, and now one of many bureaucrats in the Ten Courts of Hell.

Since the Qinguang Palace supervised the lives, deaths and fortunes of all humans, it was also the most record-intensive department, involving scrolls and stacks of bundled sticks and many, many more records beyond the ability of normal people to process.

“We’re so lucky that this system of judgements and processing has started,” the oldest official present had told Xiao Jingyu. “Last time there was barely any way for ghosts to reincarnate!”

Since the official in question was Shang Yang, Xiao Jingyu held his tongue.

In fact, many luminaries of the Legalist school had a great tendency to forsake a post in the Heavenly Courts, in favour of working for the Ten Courts of Hell – except for the fifth Court, where the nine other kings were taking turns and the turnover rate was higher than the rate of dying people. Xiao Jingyu had received an acknowledgement that the one to fill in the position of King Yanluo, and thus manage the entirety of Hell, had yet to be born.

Floating back to his desk in the great criminal court of the Qinguang Palace, Xiao Jingyu thus consulted the next trial.

“Alternate Judge Xiao Jingyu, with the authority of King Qinguang, will now review...” Xiao Jingyu took one look at the assignment. Despite being a ghostly official even in death, there was something like morbid curiosity and gleeful revenge in his heart as he stood up.

“Your Honour King Qinguang, I request a change in assignments due to a personal involvement with the criminal Xia Jiang.”

Xiao Jingyu was thus the grinning stenographer in charge of recording the trial of the deceased Xia Jiang. The former director of the Xuanjing Bureau kept staring at Xiao Jingyu then, even as the ghostly official was occupied with maintaining an impeccable court record.

After the trial, and before Xia Jiang was due to start his concurrent sentences in the Chambers of Burning, Steaming, Hanging, and Saws, Xiao Jingyu held the lictors back to confront his accuser in life, and his would-be assignment in death.

“Do you see that sign?” Xiao Jingyu simply told a silent Xia Jiang, pointing up to the signboard before the court of King Qinguang. “ ‘Your bright mirror hangs high’.”

“Your Highness Prince Qi has come to mock me now?” Xia Jiang snapped back.

“Your Bureau was always meant to reflect the good and evil of the world to the Emperor, like the legendary mirror of the First Emperor of Qin,” Xiao Jingyu sighed. “The bright mirror now hangs low because of you. Whatever you get today is your karma. Good day, Director Xia... for the rest of your afterlife.”

**Author's Note:**

> According to _Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital_ , Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, had a mirror which could show the good or evil of a person. This gave rise to the phrase 明镜高悬 - 'a mirror into the conscience'; figuratively, to be perspicacious and impartial in judgment. The Xuanjing Bureau (悬镜司) probably refers to this phrase.


End file.
